Remarks of Chair, Professor Rishi S. Raj

Plenary Session, CCNY Faculty Senate Meeting

Faculty Senate Meeting, October 21, 2010

2 PM

Today we have a very special guest among us, Professor Kathleen Barker. I am pleased to welcome her to our meeting. She will be shortly talking to us on the University Faculty Experience Survey related matters of interest to City.

Ladies and Gentlemen, right from the beginning of the Fall semester the Executive Committee of the Senate has been very vigil in making sure that the college Governance is properly observed at all levels of the College. This was in view of the many new senior level appointments and change of two top leaders who may not have grasp of our governance and needed to familiarize themselves with the new rules to meet the multiple challenges facing the College; improving the College retention and graduation rate, filling in many acting positions, building relations with community etc. Needless to say, a lawless system or society leads to chaos and is susceptible to errors and failures. When we are caught between ambition and reality the established rules to follow become even more important.

In this connection, the first thing after a long time the Senate Executive committee reconstituted the ever powerful College Wide Resource Committee with a large faculty presence in it. This Committee will review the College budget, financial management, and will work with the President on establishing financial priorities and allocations to various units of the College.

The members of this Committee are:

Stanley Ocken - Mathematics

Daniel Akins - Chemistry

Stephen Jablonsky - Music

Andrea Weiss- Media & Communication Arts

Paul Oppenheimer - English

Rishi Raj - Faculty Senate Chair

Yochanan Shachmurove (member at large) - Economics

I am pleased that Professor Daniel Akins has accepted to chair this Committee. A couple of years back, we also reconstituted and strengthened the College-wide Committee on Personal Matters under the leadership of Professor Charles Watkins which is now helping to bring law and order to tenure, promotion, overpay scale and distinguished professorship appointments in the changing college culture.

These two College-wide Committees along with Review Committee, Senate, Counsel and PAC are the pillars of the College’s proper functioning, engaging administration, extensive faculty participation and student involvement.

From our observations in the Senate, we noticed that over a period of time, the Review committee was operating with significant distortionsin its membership. The faculty Senate Chair had to take a formal governance action to notify the Chair of the committee (Provost) clarifying its real membership due to the fact that real members voice was heard less than non-members in the limited time available for these meetings.

In the past this Committee met once a week to share and disseminate important academic and other information among college administration, academic leaders and faculty. In addition, this committee takes decisions on promotion, tenure and other college-wide issues such as strategic plan implementation etc. Unfortunately in the last 9 to 10 weeks the Committee has met only twice. This has caused a breakdown in communication and interconnectedness at the college among its various entities.

Similar situation has existed in PAC which is supposed to meet once a month as per governance and never met in the last 2 years. The former leaderships were informally notified of this violation. The new President’s staff at present is trying to correct this situation.

The Executive Committee of the Senate met last week and sent four faculty nominations each for the search of Vice President of Finance and Provost to the President. The Executive Committee also extended support to thePresident’s initiative for retention and expeditious graduation of our students. However, we should note that focusing on resources on instruction and student services help this process as per (AACU), i.e. spending on faculty and teaching, student aid and access and learning productivity.

The Executive Committee was disappointed to know of the canceling of all dean searches. We believe that Deans are the backbone of the academic strength of the College. This is a cause of concern to the Senate since permanent

Deans bring in a lot of certainty and stability at the College. The Executive Committee also observed a dramatic drop in African-American students (30%) in the last five years at the Grove School of Engineering. We are trying to collect the data on other divisions also. If this situation prevails at other divisions of the College then CCNY will not enjoy the status of being a minority institution in the very near future and thus, may effect funding from agencies. We should note, however, that such minority students have a vast untapped potential that could help support United States’ social and economic development – but only if higher education institutions commit to connecting with the retaining of these students with full preparation and access.

I have been asked by the Executive Committee as well as many deans to meet with the President as soon ASAP to make her aware of the situation of the passivity, no action, no consultation or substance in meetings, no communication at academic levels necessary to move the college forward on academic matters, differential in treatment of acting and full deans, self-centered decisions without any consultation with constituents. These factors may not lead to irreparable damage. Issues like evening session, faculty space accountability, scheduling of classes, release time issues remain unresolved.

Beyond CCNY and within CUNY two important issues may interest you.

1. CPE is being eliminated

2. CUNY’s new community college

On the first issue, colleges have not been given an opportunity to discuss the matter. On the second issue CUNY’s governance leaders see this new college as a trade/vocation school and do not see this initiative with enthusiasm due to budget difficulties.

It has been very difficult for the Faculty Senate Chair to speak the truth which sometimes is not very pleasantbut he is duty bound to reveal to you all the accurate state of affairs for the good of all and this institution. Against all odds, I ask the faculty and academic unit leaders in the mean time to stay patient and follow the path of righteousness, treating each other with love, brotherhood, looking for the welfare of each other and of our students. This is the only path to the strength of our college, soul, and personal satisfaction. I know there is sacrifice involved here. I hope the things will get better in meeting everyone’s aspirations.

Finally our congratulations to GSOE for an excellent report on ABET.

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